Prescote
| Prescote | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 Prescote Manor | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP4746 |
| Location: | 52°8’2"N, 1°18’4"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 16 (2001[1]) |
| Post town: | Banbury |
| Postcode: | OX17 |
| Dialling code: | 01295 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cherwell |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Banbury |
Prescote is a hamlet and civil parish in the Banbury Hundred of Oxfordshire, about four miles north of Banbury itself. It originates as a hamlet of the ancient parish of Cropredy. Its boundaries are the River Cherwell in the south-east, a tributary of the Cherwell called Highfurlong Brook in the west, and Oxfordshire's boundary with Northamptonshire in the north-east.
History
Prescote's toponym probably means "priest's cottage", referring to a cottage either owned by a priest or more likely inhabited by one.[2] Legend associates Prescote with Saint Fremund, a Mercian prince held to have been martyred in the 9th century AD.[2]
The Domesday Book of 1086 does not mention Prescote. The manor did exist by 1208-09, when the Bishop of Lincoln was the feudal overlord.[2] Prescote comprised two manors that were held separately until 1417-1419, when John Danvers of Calthorpe acquired both of them.[2] In 1796 Sir John Danvers, Baronet, died without a male heir and left Prescote to his son-in-law Augustus Richard Butler.[2] In 1798 Butler sold the estate to the Pares family, who in 1867 sold it to Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone.[2] In 1883 Baron Overstone died without a male heir and left his estates to his daughter, Harriet, Lady Wantage.[2] On her death in 1920 Prescote was sold to A.P. McDougall,[2] whose Midland Marts company opened a cattle stockyard in 1921 beside Banbury Merton Street railway station. By 1964 Prescote belonged to Anne Crossman, the wife of Richard Crossman M.P. Crossman was a descendant of the Danvers family.[2]
Prescote manor house has traces of a mediæval moat, but a date-stone over the door of the present house indicates that it was built for Sir John Danvers in 1691.[3] The house was extended early in the 19th century.[2] The house at Prescote Manor Farm, about ½ mile north-east of the Manor House, is dated 1693.[3]
Prescote had a mill on the River Cherwell, called Boltysmylle in 1482 and Boltes Mill in 1613.[2] By 1654 there was a "Prescote Mill", which may be the same as the earlier Boltes Mill.[2] By 1703 the mill was in disrepair but its remains were still recorded as extant in 1797-98 and 1823.[2] Today only its mill stream survives.[2] The mill's decline may be linked with the manor's transition from arable to sheep farming. In 1547 a Danvers leased land at Prescote to a shepherd, and in 1797 it was reported that most of the 385 acres of the farm attached to Prescote Manor was "old inclosed" pasture.[2]
References
- ↑ "Area selected: Cherwell (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do?instanceSelection=03070&productId=779&$ph=60_61&datasetInstanceId=3070&startColumn=1&numberOfColumns=4&containerAreaId=790496. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 Crossley 1972, pp. 206–210.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 560.
Sources and further reading
- Crossley, Alan (ed.); Colvin, Christina; Cooper, Janet; Cooper, N.H.; Harvey, P.D.A.; Hollings, Marjory; Hook, Judith; Jessup, Mary et al. (1972). A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 10: Banbury Hundred. Victoria County History. pp. 206–210. ISBN 978-0-19-722728-2.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 560. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
- Wass, Stephen; Dealtry, Rebecca (2011). "Possible Early Christian Enclosure and Deserted Medieval Settlement at Prescote, Near Cropredy". Oxoniensia (Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society) LXXVI: 266–272. SSN 0308-5562.
